You know when you see a video game commercial with some dude carrying a gun and blowing a ton of stuff up? And then you hear at the end -- quickly, mind you -- "game may not have content suitable for persons under the age of 17?" Well, at that moment, you were notified of an Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rating.
And on Wednesday, ESRB announced that it partnered up with Giants players Buster Posey and Ryan Vogelsong to help make parents more aware of video-game ratings.
The pair will appear in a public-service announcement campaign that will run in Northern California where they encourage parents to use the ESRB rating system when they purchase games for their kids.
"As a professional athlete and a parent, I know you have to have the right tools and resources to succeed at both," Posey said Wednesday at AT&T Park. "From detailed ratings information to the easy-to-use mobile app, the ESRB helps parents manage their kids' video game play. I may be a relatively new parent, but thanks to the ESRB I'm definitely going to be better prepared when it comes to choosing video games for my kids."
Look, if I were 20 years younger, I'd say this was totally stupid. (And then I would go pout in my room because I didn't get to use AOL that day or something.) But video games these days are bananas, you guys. I like to nerd out and hop on the old XBox and, quite frankly, I'm often offended by what you can do -- and I grew up playing ridiculously violent stuff like "Mortal Kombat."
So good for Posey and Vogelsong for helping to make it OK and cool for younger parents to provide a filter for what kids get to play.
You can view the ESRB info here, and I went ahead and screenshotted the basic groupings for you in case you're like at Gamespot and are debating whether or not to actually purchase your 10-year-old kid a copy of something called "Modern Warfare." Because, um, you shouldn't do that.
